The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

In April 21, 2012, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was established. At present (2015) more than 130 countries are members of the platform. IPBES will be the first global mechanism, formally recognized by governments, bringing together information regarding the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services, synthesizing information in a policy-relevant manner, and providing analyses of information for decision makers.

IPBES has:

Four regional assessments under way and the global assessments to be initiated | Link

Thematic assessments, including Pollinators and Land Degradation, in different stages of progress | Link

Made significant progress made towards the establishment of an “Open-ended Stakeholder Network” where SCB has collaborated with an interim groups of Scientific Stakeholders, including among others IUCN and ICSU

Many SCB-members involved at different levels in the work of IPBES

Fourth IPBES Plenary

During 21-27 February, 2017, the fourth plenary meeting of IPBES was held in Kuala Lumpur. Find more information about the meeting at the IPBES website.

Third IPBES Plenary

During 12-17 January, 2015, the third plenary meeting of IPBES was held in Bonn, Germany. The core of the meeting was a follow up on the Work Programme (WP) established in Turkey (December 2013), where a set of expert groups had been established and initiated the work on several of the deliverables of the WP, including for example scoping of regional/subregional assessments, guidelines for conceptualization of values, and scoping for an assessment on land degradation.

Also on the agenda were a number of formal, but important procedural issues. The plenary decided on a clearance process for the reports provided by expert groups. This included a delicate balance of receiving a formal endorsement on the reports by world governments and at the same time maintaining quality and credibility in the knowledge synthesized by the expert groups. Also on the agenda was the so called Stakeholder Engagement Strategy (SES). The SES is a core document and process that will guarantee the involvement of organizations like SCB in the work of IPBES.

The SCB IPBES delegation at IPBES-3 provided coverage of the meeting on the SCB News Blog. Read about meeting outcomes: